left Laxman's house at 7.30 to walk the 3 kilometres for the 9am bus down the mountain. keso (Bless him) caried my rucksack and the walk to the top was not as bad as I had expected - I must be getting fit.
befoe we left Laxman (my brother - didiby) and his wife Sita (my friend - Sati) sat Marianna and me down and painted a tikka (red dot) on our forehead and put a garland of red and white flowers around our necks. the children gave us posies of flowers and prceeded to add more red paint to our faces. I ooked ike a red indian by the end.
Anyway - on the way to the bus the clouds cleared enough to see a good proportion of the mountain ranges - a spectacular sight. I've taken photos but I know they won't portrait the magnificence of these peaks.
Bus arrived and it was nearly full before the crowd who were waiting with us got on. luckily (or not) the 4 of us (Keso and Niamh came with us)got the back seat and we squeezed our rucksacks in and off we went for the mountain flight down. Well now I know why Laxman always says 'Oh My God!'. I thought the ride up was bad but this was just like a flight with really bad turbuence or going over a building site at a vertical angle. The back door was open so we had to hold on to our rucksacks for grim death. I was in the back corner and had my feet on top of them so every time we went over a majorbump I was ifted off the seat. There were bars around the windows so I am now back and blue from being squashed and bumped against them. The trip is only about 13 kms but it took 2 hurs and the locals just stared at these red faced indians in the back who were laughing their heads off at the roller coaster ride down.
Niamh is staying another 2 weeks with the familybut came down with us just to spend one night of luxury in a soft hotel bed and have a hot shower.
I enjoyed my stay in the mountains, despite all the mosquito bites and I know I wil never forget their genuine heatfelt kindness.
Back now in Pokhara for one night and then on to Chitwan - the jungle.
xx
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1 comment:
Sounds like a fab time, and something I know you are going to miss. looking forward to hearing about the Jungle! xxxx
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